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Wednesday, 17 June 2015

The Tudor Manor - Bringing back the Past's History

Hello my dear friends,

Hope you are all doing fine. The weather has been really nice and warm. Time to pull out the swimsuit and go to the beach. The kids love it.

Today I really want to share with you something very special and that means so much to me. Last week was my birthday and just a few days before I bought myself a present. Well you can all guess what I got....what a coincidence....another dolls house. But with a bit of a difference this dolls house has a history.

Like you all know I am quite the collector and fan of the Dolls House Emporium houses which is one of the leading Dolls House suppliers in the world. I love collecting those houses that unfortunately have been discontinued and are very rare to come by. I do know most of their houses that they had. Some of them I have already built and some of them are still boxed waiting for the right time to come.

The Tudor Manor

So around two weeks ago I was looking through ebay. A very dangerous place for me. I wasn't looking for any houses. I was just interested in some Tudor style furniture. While scrolling down I found this lovely house. My heart skipped a beat as I knew too well what it was. I was 100% sure that it was one of those extremely rare finds that there was no way that I could ever find it in kit form. The only information that I had was it's name the amount of rooms and the dimensions and one black and white picture of an old catalog.

The illustration from an old catalog

Amy PurserHead of Brand of theDolls House Emporium

After purchasing it, my number one source to give me some information about it was the dearest Amy Purser, Head of Brand and daughter of the founders of the Dolls House Emporium. We had quite a good chat about it and I got to discover so many things and facts that makes this dolls house a lot more worth the amount I got it (£125 which was a ridiculous price) and I will be treasuring it with all my heart.

I was surprised to hear what Amy had to say about it and she told me that the only one that she ever saw in this design was the one that she actually has herself and confirmed that it was indeed the The Tudor Manor. It is not a 1:12th scale as before the Dolls House Emporium made smaller Scales. However, she has used 1:12th scale for hers as the rooms are quite big and in Tudor times the doors used to be a bit smaller. Her father had designed it and it was one of two of the first kits ever made. The Chimney would have been handmade by Adam Purser and most probably I would find inscribed his initials and the date. It would have been made around 1979 / 1980.

Adam and Jackie back thenthe founders of DHE

I was just stunned with the amount of information I had gotten so far and I showed Amy some pictures that the seller sent me of the interior. I just wondered if it did come in kit form or if it was ready built. I knew that there was some sort of built in fire place.

She believes that my Tudor Manor was built by her father which also means that Jackie Lee helped decorate it. The roof tiles would have all been varnished and glued individually, all the wood work would have been stained by Jackie or Adam.

There is a "working" fireplace in the right hand room on the ground floor. In theory, if you lit a fire in it, the smoke would go out up the chimney.

It was like winning the grand lottery to read what she told me. I was already thinking of making renovations but after the knowledge that this was built by Adam Purser and Jackie Lee there was no way I was going to touch it. I wanted to make sure that the papers and flooring where the originals.

Amy confirmed that the papers are the original papers as the one in the far left hand room was like hers. All the doors and skirting are original, and even the lights of the hall are original.She also told me that it was quite a rare find that brought her sweet memories.

I promised Amy that it will be cherished and will remain in the original state and that if she ever made it to Malta she is more than welcome to visit.

I was really excited and I couldn't wait for it to arrive. Finally today it arrived and I am really pleased to say that it came in one piece and nothing was broken.

The first thing I looked for was the chimney markings that Amy had told me about and I am proud to say that I found them.

On the front of the chimney I am assuming that there is a "T M" for "Tudor Models" as the Dolls House Emporium at first was called like that and at the back of the chimney I found the numbers "129" I think it must the the custom number.

The No.129

The Initials TM

The Hand made chimney

The papering is just beautiful and the carpeting is lovely and soft. For it's age it is still in a good condition. As for the size I am pretty sure that it is a 1:16th scale and as Amy said a 1:12th scale furniture could fit in very easily. Only the doors are slightly narrow but Tudor houses do tend to have smaller doors.

Here are some pictures of the rooms

The Tudor Manor

The Rooms

The stair case

The built in Fire place

Inside the Tudor Manor

I am just in love with it all, I would have never thought that there was so much history behind it and I am so proud to own it. For the time being I am just going to leave it and study it. I will dust it and give it a clean. I have a good feeling that I will be turning it to a 1920's -1930's house.

I really want to thank Amy for the time spent for giving me all this wonderful information.

So that is all for today. I hope you found this post interesting. Next time we will meet we will back with an update of No 35, so keep tuned.

Welcome to all!

About Me

Hi I am Rebecca Micallef from Malta. I have been building dolls house for 20 years and it's still my favorite hobby. It all started when I was around 4 years old when my parents gave me my first dolls house. From that day I never looked back. Even though I am married to the most wonderful man and we have been blessed with three beautiful children and work I still have time to create my own miniature world. Building dolls houses and creating miniature is not a hobby, it is far more than and addiction, it is a passion that I can't live without. You can see all my works on My Miniature World Blog